Baseball and softball catchers are positioned behind home plate and perform many important functions during a game, from calling plays and protecting the plate to catching the ball thrown by the pitcher. Due to impacts from pitches, sometimes in excess of 90 mph, and home plate crashes with other players, the bodies of catchers are regularly exposed to physical trauma.
One particular physical injury that catchers are especially prone to is knee injuries. Due to the crouching position catchers assume behind home plate, catchers commonly injure their knees. For instance, the crouching position exposes the inner legs of a catcher to impacts from pitches. Because of this exposure, the inner side portions of a catcher's knees are often struck by the ball. Collisions at home plate from opposing team players trying to score also often result in slides that impact or injure the catcher's lower legs and knees. These types of injuries can seriously hinder the catcher's ability to perform vital functions during the game.
Current leg guards exist that provide some protection to the knee, thigh, and shin areas. Existing leg guards typically include a triple kneecap design, where three separate protective paddings come together to cover and protect the knee. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,946 to Jurga describes a triple kneecap design where a pair of flexible straps is utilized to secure the knee guard, first thigh guard, and second thigh guard to each other. The leg guards usually include additional protective padding to protect the thigh and shin portions of the leg. However, existing triple kneecap designs do not provide sufficient protection for the inner side portions of a catcher's knees.
In addition, a catcher's blocking motions for stopping wild pitches requires that the catcher drop quickly onto their knees from the crouching position and just as quickly either reassume the crouching position or stand upright to throw out any potential base stealers. In doing so, the pads of the catcher's leg guard often become misaligned and mispositioned. For instance, when a catcher assumes the crouching position, the leg guard slides down the leg of the catcher about 3 inches. However, when the catcher reassumes a standing upright position from the crouching position, the leg guard does not slide back up into place to protect the thigh. Not only can this be distracting to the catcher, but it also requires the catcher to quickly reposition and align the pads.
While catchers have been provided with equipment to protect their bodies from these various stresses, there still remains a need for a leg guard that more adequately protects the catcher's knees and allows catchers to freely and quickly move to or through different stances without having to re-position the pads of the leg guard.